Harmonics are those unwanted signals that cause distortion of the voltage and current waveform. Harmonics have frequency equal to integral multiple of fundamental frequency. If fundamental frequency is 50Hz, then 2nd, 3rd, 4th harmonics have frequency equal to 100Hz, 150Hz, 200Hz respectively and so on.... These harmonics are unfavourable as they increases power losses, heating, & reduce the power quality. Harmonic filters are employed for the mitigation of these harmonics.
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Generally the sum of even harmonics is less than 1% of fundamental component thus they are not considered. also 3rd, 5th and 7th order harmonics constitute about 97% of harmonic. Thus it is most economically suitable to design harmonic filters for these components as these can reduce the harmonic level well below the desired limit.
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Calculations are a major part of design process in all aspects of engineering applications. This laborious and time consuming process can be made really easy by the aid of a high level engineering software like MATLAB. This paper deals with the scope and flexibility of MATLAB.